Thunder Moon: Book 2 of the Chatterre Trilogy (Chatterre Triology)

by Jeanne Foguth

  Raine’s myst began its faltering separation.

  “You are doing well,” he assured her. The only one who could compare to her for first time skill was Nimri.

  “This feels strange, more like a dream than reality.”

  “Dreams bring us close.” Her myst detached from her physical form. “Are you ready?”

  Eyes wide she shook her head and stared past him. “What is that?” Thunder looked over his shoulder.

  Alert amber eyes peered at them from under thick black ear tufts. Kazza hovered outside their chamber, the tip of his tail tapping with impatience. “This is my dear friend, Kazza. He is the one with true healing powers,” Thunder said.

  The great cat rolled his whiskers and showed his enormous pointed teeth. Raine gasped. Kazza looked around, pausing for a moment to stare at the nearby rocky surface of the other moon, then, he tilted his head toward Kalamar’s surface.

  “We must go,” Thunder said.

  Raine held back. “Are you certain that beast is safe?”

  “He’s been with our family since he was a cub.” Thunder rose toward Kazza, but Raine pulled him back.

  “The airlock is this way.”

  “Our myst does not have the same needs as our bodies do.” With that, Thunder allowed his form to pass through the frigid safety of the water-filled barrier.

  Despite her dubious look, she put her hands up as if to dive through the barrier. “Wow, this feels strange. Cold and hard, yet not,” Raine said. She spread her arms wide and twirled around. “What an incredible leap of consciousness and form.”

  “Don’t forget why we’re here.” They looked at Kalamar’s surface. Molten gold flecks swarmed like bees among the shrouding mist. Blue lightning shot upward. The flared nostrils of the nose and huge red eyes charged out of the steamy layer.

  “Oh, look they’re already coming.” Her tone brimmed with excitement.

  “And they’re as deadly to you in this form as if you tried to touch one with your physical hand,” he warned. “Remember we are the bait. They come so they can consume your essence.”

  She swallowed. “Why did you pick me for this?”

  “Because we have the most chance of success.” Kazza slapped Thunder’s shin with his tail. He glared at the cat. There was no way that he was going to tell this woman that he was attracted to her. Kazza twirled his whiskers, then soared toward Vilecom. “Come. Follow Kazza.”

  “You’re joking.”

  Thunder shook his head. “Reed trusts me because of my lineage. Kazza’s ancestry is far grater than mine will ever be.”

  ooo

  Being without a body provided a freedom she’d never imagined. Giddiness nearly overwhelmed Raine as she and Thunder followed Kazza toward Vilecom. The closer they got, the more debilitating the heat grew. Yet she had no skin to blister or lungs to breathe. The heat cannot hurt me. It’s all in my mind. She kept repeating the thought, each time forming the belief with more certainty. Slowly the oppressiveness melted away to insignificance. As it did, the shear joy of the experience welled. The urge to laugh and sing grew. “This is even better than being nobility.”

  Thunder gave her a confused look. “This will be the most dangerous thing you’ve ever done in your life.”

  Craziest, maybe. Bizarre, definitely. But how could something so liberating be dangerous? “What do we have to do to get the dragons to push the moon?” And how could something liquid be pushed? For that matter, how did it stay in its round form?

  “I do not know.”

  She stopped. “What do you mean, ‘you don’t know’? You’re the ancient one. You’re supposed to know everything.”

  “That is what Reed believes. But if it is to be done, we must follow Kazza’s lead.”

  They headed toward the creature, who appeared to be sprawled near the base of a building lunar flare, ears forward, as it intently watched the planet below them. The flare streamed past them, then billowed out in space. The orbit had decayed so badly that it nearly hit the atmosphere. Except during landings and takeoffs, the oxygen shroud had never seemed so close. “What happens if a flare hits the air?”

  “Nothing good.” He looked into the distance. “They come. It is time for us to join Kazza. He has fought a dragon before.”

  Though ominous looking, the creature was no match for a dragon, not even a new-born mooncalf. “I’m surprised he survived the conflict.” What was she saying? She and Thunder combined didn’t equal the animal. He was right, this wasn’t a party.

  “I was surprised, too.”

  “How did he do it?”

  Thunder gave her a bleak look. “Don’t ask.”

  Her stomach tightened and her heart sped. “This is so strange. In one way it’s exciting.” But as the dragons approached without Nambaba’s shell to protect her, it became impossible to breathe. She laughed. He looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. “Even though I left my body behind, I still feel the sensations from it.”

  He nodded in understanding. “We become accustomed to them, so even myst uses the familiar feelings to alert us to danger.” He settled next to the cat and began to stroke its spine. A deep rumble came from the creature. It was a nice, soothing sound. Raine stopped near them. “Would you like to pet him?”

  “May I?”

  He placed her hand on the animal’s broad back. “If you calm your attitude, you will be safer.”

  There was a deep vibration beneath the soft outer covering. “Mmmm. Your Kazza feels nice.”

  “Kazza doesn’t belong to me.” Love tinged his tone. It would be nice to hear him say her name that way. “If anything, I belong to him.” Thunder tickled the animal’s ears. The base rumble of happiness intensified.

  “You’re serious.”

  He nodded. “Why aren’t you afraid?”

  “I’m terrified,” she admitted.

  “Oh.”

  “Why?” she asked. “Did you think my laughter meant that I didn’t understand the danger?” His shrug and shamed expression confirmed her suspicion. “You seem calm, but then you’ve done this separation thing before.”

  “Not with these odds.”

  She snorted. “You win, you go home. You lose, we all lose. It seems simple to me.”

  He shook his head. “Nimri has been having complications with her pregnancy. If I don’t return to my planet, she could bleed to death while giving birth.”

  “Nimri.” She bet the woman who had his heart was as beautiful as a noble.

  He nodded. “I didn’t finish closing the Star Bridge.” He cleared his throat. “After the moon crashes, any surviving dragons will destroy my world.”

  “Surely you’re overstating the issue.” He gave her a stern look. “Okay, so you aren’t. But why should they go all the way to the Alpha Quadrant?”

  “Myst.” He rubbed his temples. “Our myst alerts us to unfamiliar situations. Sometimes there is valid danger. Other times our intellect recognizes that it is safe, but something has activated our warning system. It’s strongest when we’re in this mode, but in any form, it lures the dragons like nothing else.”

  “So we really are in danger,” Raine said.

  He sighed. “I’ve only faced death this closely twice before.”

  “What happened?”

  “The first time was when I was young and my parents took me in a boat. There was a terrible storm and it capsized. I nearly drowned.” Kazza turned his head toward Thunder and slightly puffed his cheeks. “My parents did drown. Until you brought me to your world, I hated water.” Kazza’s deep, contented vibration ended and he lunged to his feet.

  “And the second?”

  He gestured to something behind her. She turned. A mooncalf was approaching them at incredible speed, its gossamer wings stretched wide to catch the solar current. Her throat went dry. “What do I do?”

  “Copy Kazza, if you feel that you’re about to die, tell yourself to wake. This will send your myst back to your body.” For the first time since she’d me
t him, he wouldn’t look her in the eye.

  What wasn’t he telling her? “That seems too simple.”

  Instead of answering her unspoken question, he moved beside Kazza and waited. He’d said that there needed to be two for this out of body experience. If the dragons consumed one of their spirits or they were in danger of dying and ‘woke’ what happened to the other one? She was afraid she knew the answer. Death to one would mean death to both. “I’ll do my best to stay alive. You do the same.”

  He gave a stiff nod. “I want to return home.”

  He wanted to save his world from the dragons, just as she wanted to save Kalamar from the moon. “I’m sorry. If it hadn’t been for me-“

  “I would have lived my life in fear of water. I should thank you for that. But I must return so I can close the portal between our worlds and keep my planet safe from the dragons.” Kazza’s tail wrapped around Thunder in friendship. He caressed the animal’s broad back.

  “How can he be here by himself, when it takes both of us?”

  “Nimri.”

  Her, again.

  The mooncalf closed the distance between them, a hundred more following close behind it. It was now or never. Kazza reared onto his back legs and bared lethal-looking claws. He would have made an awesome sight if he hadn’t been the size of the horn-like protrusion on the mooncalf’s shimmering nose. The mooncalf's tongue darted toward them like a bolt of blue lightning. An instant later, the molecules around her shimmered. Spirit! The dragons were worse than any storm she’d ever heard of.

  “Stay away from their tongues,” Thunder said. “There’s something about them that saps your energy and will to survive.”

  Raine braced herself for the collision. Again, the tongue raced toward them and the wall of sound swept over them. Again, it fell short. But if the mooncalf’s speed remained constant, it would get them next time. She glanced at Thunder, who seemed incredibly calm. Kazza exuded expectancy.

  As the tongue retracted, Kazza sprang toward the mooncalf’s face in a mighty leap that landed on the edge of its flared nostril. Raine and Thunder jumped after him. She leaped so high that she landed against one of the three thick ridges on its forehead and began to slide down. Beneath her, Thunder came to rest spread-eagled against the dragon’s eye. The mooncalf’s lower lids began to move upward.

  She swiveled and straddled the center ridge, bracing her feet in the Vs, which formed where the three ridges joined. Now what to do?

  Thunder rode the lid toward her. She reached for him. As he stepped onto the ridge next to her, the beast entered Vilecom’s magma surface. Though she sensed the intense heat, it was bearable. The dragon bored deeper into the molten core. Water got darker the deeper it got; Vilecom got oranger.

  “How can we tell if it’s on target?”

  He shrugged. “I’m hoping that Kazza has some way to control it.”

  How could Kazza understand their plan, when he hadn’t been told? Suddenly, they were out of the molten rock and into dark space, but they were heading for a disabled Crystalline Reclamation Unit that appeared to be lodged next to a shimmering, transparent ship in Ishdoo’s largest crater. She blinked at the odd way the damage appeared, then looked back at Vilecom. She imaged that she could see it lurch a millimeter closer to Kalamar’s atmosphere. Wow, this spirit journeying certainly had some strange effects on vision. Another dragon emerged from the moon, then a second, and within moments, a dozen surfaced. Now, she was certain that it wasn’t just her imagination. The gap between magma and atmosphere was noticeably narrower.

  “Did the ship call them?” Thunder asked. Couldn’t he see that the ship was damaged and some sort of strange energy had billowed out the slashed side? “Dalf told me that the ships stop evenly around the moon, before they call the mooncows.”

  “That’s it! We need to herd the dragons into the magma, then position the Reclamation Units in the direction we need them to go and call them! All that transparent stuff should make a great lure."

  “Can you do this?”

  “I can try.”

  He gripped both of her hands. “Wake.”

  Chapter 24

  Raine heaved her cumbersome body upright and lurched toward the Control Hub. “Where are you going?” Thunder called.

  She pointed a leaden arm at the end of the tentacle. “Must get to the radio.” Footfalls sounded behind her. By the time she reached the connecting door to the main hub, Thunder had caught up with her, and she felt as if she’d swum the distance during a raging storm.

  “Is it always this bad then the essence returns?” Thunder nodded and placed a supportive arm around her. Tingles of relief rippled over her. “Thanks. I need to get to the communications center and contact the shepherd and reclamation fleets.”

  “This is necessary?”

  She inclined her head. “We must organize the ships in the direction we want the moon pushed.”

  “That will be dangerous.”

  “Not as much as letting the moon fall.”

  All attention centered on them when they entered Nambaba’s core. Reed, turned from the nav-panel, his accusing expression cut her to the core. “Gauges disclose that the moon is closer.”

  Raine nodded. “The dragons became mesmerized by the derelict CRU on Ishdoo.” Some were still milling around it, as they had HQ. She tapped the screen.

  “Otami got a report about an odd transmission just before the herd emerged from the moon,” Brock said. “The good news is that all the dragons have left the planet’s surface. The bad news is that massive damage was done to shepherd Headquarters and The Pinnacle.”

  Raine settled the com-link over her mouth and ear, then keyed in Blue Team’s radio frequency.

  “Rice crops are ruined and several hundred thousand died when fire rages through Sector Ninety-seven,” Shay added.

  “What of Yulder’s ovum?” Thunder asked.

  “They have no way of knowing,” Shay said. “The Bakufus Sea is sacred to them and they don’t share this sort of information with us ‘non-water-breathers’.”

  “Blue Leader, this is Gold Leader,” Raine said. “I have a plan to move Vilecom back into place, but I need everyone’s help.”

  “Did you forget that you’ve been put on leave?” Otami asked.

  “I don’t think that matters any more.”

  “Go home. Tend your fish-boy.”

  Her molars ground together, but her tone remained professional. “If the moon goes down, we all lose everything.”

  “Don’t make the situation more melodramatic than it is.”

  “Reed D'nor believes it. He says we need to herd the dragons to these coordinates.” She pressed the transmit button to send the information to the fleet.

  “Are you so desperate to lead that you invent guidance from the dead?” His mocking tone reeked with disdain.

  “We must get all available CRU ships to this area.” She transmitted a second set of coordinates. “Once all ships are in place and the dragons are at the entry point, the CRU ships need to send out their-“

  “Get off the air and let me do my job.”

  Brock snatched the com-link off her head. “Blue Leader, this is Brock Vole d’Laire. Drop the attitude and follow Gold Leader’s Directions.” He thrust the com-link back at her.

  “Who was that?” Otami demanded.

  “He identified himself,” Raine said.

  “First you invent guidance from the dead, now nobility!” His mocking tone reeked with disdain.

  “No, that’s the sort of thing you do,” Raine calmly replied. “My control hub is standing room only. Since I can help this situation better if I do my normal job, I’m going to put Reed on to explain his request.” She handed the com-link to him and began maneuvering Nambaba toward the massive herd milling over the derelict CRU ship near Ishdoo.

  Reed spoke softly.

  Otami made a loud, vulgar comment.

  Reed’s jaw dropped. Brock grabbed the unit, again. “Do you recognize my voi
ce?”

  “Oh, this is rich.” Otami snorted. “Go short-circuit your radio and get off this frequency, so my team can control the situation.”

  Brock nudged her away from the control panel and typed in 193092830X. “Blue Leader, you are relieved of duty.” Mouth flat with anger, he pressed transmit. “Blue Team and all CRU units, verify this order on your com-links, and follow Gold Leader.”

  “Don’t listen to him,” Otami ordered. “A bakufu is impersonating him.” Otami continued haranguing his crew.

  Brock typed in a second code, 19304678 then glanced at her. “Is this jerk Blue-1?” Raine nodded. He added 791. Otami was cut off in mid-sentence. “I never thought I’d have to use that command code,” Brock said. He stepped back and motioned for Raine to take her seat in the captain’s chair. “Please, do whatever you can to save them.”

  “What if it doesn’t work?” Raine asked.

  “Then we will be no worse off than we are now.” He squeezed her shoulder.

  The radio crackled. “Blue seventeen here. What should I do?”

  “How is your water supply?”

  “Enough to protect the ship, not enough for a hydroblast,” Seventeen said.

  “What about the rest of you?” As the crew logged in, it became apparent that they were all in the same situation as Seventeen. Landing and reabsorbing hydro would take too long. “Hopefully we won’t need our blasters.” She took a deep breath and assessed the screen. “Five, nine and twenty three, secure the dragons in alpha sector and herd them toward the coordinates I provided. The rest of you form up on me.” She pushed the nav-stick forward and dove toward the derelict ship.

  “What are you doing?” Brock asked.

  “The ship seems to be a lure, so I intend to place the bait in a more advantageous place.”

  He nodded. Coral clutched Reed’s hand, her eyes wide with hope and fear.